In a new crime targeting Palestinian presence within the 1948-occupied territories, Israeli occupation authorities on Wednesday morning demolished around 20 homes and commercial structures in the city of Rahat in the Naqab (Negev) region, under the pretext of “building without a permit.” This occurred amid a large deployment of occupation forces that cordoned off the area and prevented residents from approaching.
The demolitions left more than 150 people, including women and children, homeless and exposed to the elements. They now join a long list of families facing the same fate due to Israeli policies aimed at restricting Palestinian life in the Naqab and stripping them of their right to housing and dignified living.
Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in the Naqab with over 75,000 residents, already suffers from poverty, unemployment, and a lack of basic infrastructure. Despite these hardships, the city has faced increasing waves of demolitions, up by more than 400% under the current Netanyahu government. These acts are part of plans designed to confine the Palestinian population to the smallest possible areas and dispossess them of their land.
What is happening in the Naqab is part of a systematic policy of discrimination and slow ethnic cleansing. The Israeli occupation authorities refuse to grant the necessary building permits to Palestinians, while simultaneously expanding settlements and Israeli projects in the area, a blatant violation of the principles of equality and the rights of indigenous inhabitants to land and housing.
These demolition policies are not merely about “unlicensed construction,” as the Israeli narrative claims, but part of a larger scheme to depopulate the land of its Palestinian residents and reshape its demographics in favor of a Jewish majority. This amounts to a fully-fledged crime under international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
